anti-air defense ausweis

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

This is a nice anti-air defense ausweis used at a facility using inmates from the Oranienburg concentration camp. So it seems that also non-SS personnel where active in camp facilities too, did not know that.

Neil.

[Historiker]

Hi Neil,

A most interesting Ausweis. The Oranienburg Concentration Camp, run by the SA, was taken over by the SS right after the SA purge in 1934 and closed that same year, so your Ausweis cannot be associated with that camp. However, Martin Weinmann's comprehensive reference on the National Socialist Camp System records a sub-camp and Kommando from the Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen at the Hienkelwerke in Oranienburg in 1943. As of July 3, 1943, this sub-camp held 5,271 prisoners, up from 2,384 prisoners only three months before, in March. It seems likely to me that these prisoners were performing forced labor at the Heinkel factory. Your guy, a Luftwaffe Helfer (LWH), was serving on an anti-aircraft Flak crew that helped to protect a plant railway from Oranienburg to the factory and IMO was not actually working at the factory itself. Although the Ausweis originally lost its validity on December 31, 1941, the large 1943 stamp seems to indicate that the validity was extended.

Very interesting and rare Ausweis. Thanks for sharing!

Best,
Bill in Barbados

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Bill,

Many many many thanks for the information, it seems you are truly an expert in this field, which interests both of us.

Thanks again!
Rgrds,
Neil.

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Bill,

Another thing if I can ask you, can you see this attached scan and let me know what this location was and the user if he was a forced-worker too?

Thank you,
Neil.

[Historiker]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the kind words, altho' I am in no way an expert in these matters!!!!! This piece is a soup ration card issued by the rail depot in Lublin, which at the time was in the General Gouvernment in Poland. The name is Slavic, so there is always the possibility that the holder was conscripted by the German authorities into forced labour, but it is impossible to be sure. I can't find any reference to the Bahnbetriebswerk Lublin in the Weinmann book, which includes all Nazi labour camps in Germany and in the occupied territories. However, He may have been a resident of Lublin conscripted off the streets but not removed from his residence to a camp for forced labourers. I just can't provide a definitive answer to your question. The Rumanian Volksdeutsche Ausweis is an outstanding and rare find. I'll comment on that thread soon. Keep 'em coming!

Best,
Bill

[huddyhuddy]

Hi Bill，

Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated.
May I ask why you think the Rumanian item is rare?

Rgrds,
Neil.

[Historiker]

Hi Neil,

I collected all manner of Third Reich Ids, including those issued to Volksdeutsche in eastern Europe, for many years. I saw only a few of the Rumanian examples in all those years, to include the one I had in my own collection.

Regards,
Bill